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The Moon Creeps Up to the Bubbling of Bassoons

In 1658 the eminently learned Sir Kenelme Digby performed an experiment using a “well-polished silver bason” proving the “rayes of the moon are cold and moist.” Why lunar rayes are cold is obvious, but the source of their moistness has long been a puzzle (Sir Kenelme attributed the dampness to the sun, mistakenly believing the sun to be a “humid star”). But last week scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory finally found the answer. Moonbeams are moist because the Moon has lots of water in it, at least a “100 times more” than “previous estimates”.

"He is built like some imperial roomFor that to dwell in, and be still at home.His breast is a brave palace, a broad street,Where all heroic ample thoughts do meet;Where nature such a large survey hath ta'enAs other souls to his, dwelt in a lane."

It only adds to the greatness of the man that, when not catching moon-beams, plundering Dutch ships, running Frenchmen through, and slaughtering Spaniards, Sir Kenelm liked to put on his pinny and make possets.

That account of Digby's extraordinary fight in Madrid must have been the basis of the scene in Perez-Reverte's book "Capitan Alatriste", in which the Prince of Wales (later Charles I) and the Duke of Buckingham are attacked at night on the streets of Madrid. Wales had gone there to check out a Spanish princess.

"America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them; and every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American." - George W. Bush

"America is not only for the whites , but it is for all. Who is the America? The American is you, me and that. When we go to America we will become Americans and there is no a race or nationalism called America and the Americans are those Africans, Indians, Chinese, and Europeans and whoever goes to America will become American...American is for all of us and the whole world had made and created America. All the people all over the world had made America and it shall accordingly be for all of us. I will never feel ashamed when I claim for my right in America and it will not be strange when I raise my v…